Synchronous modulation method and apparatus for in-line regeneration of a WDM soliton signal, and an optical telecommunications systems using the method

摘要

The object of the invention enables wavelength division multiplexed solitons conveyed by an optical fiber to be regenerated synchronously. The method uses clock recovery from the WDM signal, and synchronous modulation of the solitons at the clock rate recovered in this way. The locations for the optical modulators are selected to be at a distance between the transmitter and the first modulator or between successive modulators along the optical link such that the signals at different wavelengths are synchronous. The apparatus of the invention regenerates solitons in-line by synchronously modulating said solitons using an optical modulator, clock recovery, and multichannel filtering at the output from the modulator. In a particular embodiment, the telecommunications system of the invention also includes fiber lengths having different dispersion relationships depending on their position within the link, so as to achieve "dispersion management" within the link. The invention is applicable to optical telecommunications over great distances by means of solitons.